


in turbidus veritas

by arcanawildcard, clairelutra



Series: 'twas born from the blue hellsite [5]
Category: Persona 5
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Fluff and Humor, In Vino Veritas, Jealousy, Second-Hand Embarrassment, more or less
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-08
Updated: 2019-12-08
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:07:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21716617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arcanawildcard/pseuds/arcanawildcard, https://archiveofourown.org/users/clairelutra/pseuds/clairelutra
Summary: Irritated with Joker for eating the last sweet in the inventory, Panther accidentally catches him in a cast of Tentarafoo.Oracle’s lips took on a worrying curve as she singsonged, “Oh, Joker!”Joker blinked fuzzily at the room, searchingly, before ending somewhere to the left of Oracle. “Haa...?”“That’s asuper coolcoat you got there,” Oracle purred. Panther got the distinct impression of a kitten waggling its butt before going in for the pounce.And Joker...smiled.Proud and smug and disjointed and sleepy andoh no.Oh no.
Relationships: Amamiya Ren/Takamaki Ann, Kurusu Akira/Takamaki Ann, Persona 5 Protagonist/Takamaki Ann
Series: 'twas born from the blue hellsite [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1609501
Comments: 12
Kudos: 201





	in turbidus veritas

**Author's Note:**

> **anonymous asked:** Thanks for always writing amazing stuff! For the request, maybe Panther casting tentarafoo and accidentally hitting Joker?
> 
> decompression projects while i work on the next chapter of boyfriend material \o/
> 
> (just in case you forgot, this is [Awakened God](https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/megamitensei/images/f/fb/ArahabakiKC.jpg) and this is [Scathach](https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/megamitensei/images/5/5b/1150253-scathach.png))

Panther really, really, _really_ doesn’t have any excuse, but she never realized just how much of their abilities were controlled by their emotions.

Revulsion and fear were usually the emotions she felt for Shadows and she never had any trouble hitting them, but apparently resentment worked too, because that was what she felt about Joker eating their last sweet _right in front of her_ while she had _none_.

So when she cast Tentarafoo in the following battle, that clicky _tug_ of magic felt like one too many—and the swirling ill-will caught Joker dead on as he slashed down the Shadow he’d been whittling down.

She, Queen, and Skull wrapped up the battle as quick as they could while dodging Joker’s drunken attempts at ‘help’, but they were all distinctly more battered than they should have been as they dashed to the nearest safe room.

Joker was still staggering as they slammed the door shut, swaying over to the nearest chair with Queen’s help and immediately faceplanting on the table, a far cry from his usual casual pace as he checked on them all.

“Man, is he still supposed to be this... out of it?” Skull muttered out of side of his mouth as they all watched Queen try to get him to drink some water. “Usually this stuff is over as soon as the last Shadow goes down.”

“Well, Panther’s still standing and we’re all a lot stronger than most of the Shadows,” Oracle pointed out in a whisper, though she looked equally concerned, “so... who knows. I didn’t even know we _could_ get each other with these spells.”

“Neither did I,” Panther said. The guilt was _unbearable_. “H-he _will_ be okay... right?”

Oracle shrugged, tapping the side of her goggles and focusing their many lenses on their incapacitated leader. “Should be. If it lasts more than twenty minutes, we should probably get out of here, though. Real air’ll probably fix it.”

Panther let out a breath that she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. “Right.”

 _“Until_ then...” Oracle’s lips took on a worrying curve as she singsonged, “Oh, Joker!”

Joker blinked fuzzily at the room, searchingly, before ending somewhere to the left of Oracle. “Haa...?”

“That’s a _super cool_ coat you coat there,” Oracle purred. Panther got the distinct impression of a kitten waggling its butt before going in for the pounce.

And Joker... _smiled._

Proud and smug and disjointed and sleepy and _oh no._

_Oh no._

Panther didn’t even catch what Oracle was doing to butter him up before messing with him—that smile had a few of Cupid’s arrows poking out of her chest and butterflies in her stomach and an itchy warmth in her veins and hands. The world shrunk down to a terribly open and vulnerable and suggestible Joker— _Akira_ —and the _irresistible temptation_ that brought on.

( _Gnah._ To think that it took a magical roofie to _finally_ break down that composed, regal reserve...

This was _so_ cheating, but that knowledge didn’t keep her heart from beating hard in her chest and her mouth from watering as she considered the possibilities.)

Happiness, confusion, befuddled irritation, awe, disconcerted puzzling—each and every one of those emotions were written clear as crystal across his beautiful face as Oracle talked, slate gray eyes hazy.

His eyes found her at the back of the crowd, dopey smile flitting across his countenance for a second before it was replaced by a sad pout as he pointedly avoided looking at her.

_Gurk._

(So much guilt, _so much_ , and yet... he was _just so cute_ she wanted to _eat him up!_ )

To Panther’s profound relief, it didn’t look like anyone else had noticed the interaction; Queen was shooing Oracle away from him while Skull took her place as main instigator, Fox watching the scene with fascination and Mona and Noir hovered nearby.

“We need to let him _rest,”_ Queen was sighing as Ryuji quizzed Joker about what he _really_ thought about their popularity as Phantom Thieves and whether or not Risette was really the queen of idols. _“Go._ Let him lie down.”

The puppyish look Joker fixed her with proved to be Panther’s undoing; that weird little lurch of what may have been jealousy mixed with a keening longing.

“Oh! I can— I can help,” she blurted, winded. Her chest was just too tight. Her face felt hot as she added, “H-here, he can take the bench! I can look after him.”

“Uh,” said Oracle, shooting Panther an odd look as she approached. “Sure? Just... don’t do anything weird, okay?”

“Wha—?!” Panther squeaked— _really_ squeaked. It wasn’t just her chest that felt tight. “Why would I do anything weird?!”

“Panther...” said Skull on a sigh, “you’re droolin’.”

She clamped a hand to her mouth with a strangled _meep_ , absolutely _mortified_ to find that he was right.

She made a concentrated effort to calm herself down and... _mostly_ succeeded by the time Joker was laid on the bench with his head on her lap.

With all those gloriously messy and silky-soft-looking pitch black curls _right there_. Under her hands, _literally under her hands—!_

Just a _little_ petting wouldn’t be ‘something weird’, would it? She’d be gentle! _Just... one... little... touch..._

She was breathing hard again, saliva pooling in her mouth as she thought about it.

...It would _totally_ be weird.

 _Ughhhh_...

She kept her hands to herself as she studied his face, all flawless alabaster skin and finely cut features, long eyelashes fluttering and a single dark eye glancing up at her before shutting again with a soft _hmph_.

Panther swallowed down the squeak in her throat. _Her heart couldn’t take this much cute!_

“Are you mad at me?” she asked. With great effort, her voice came out sounding _almost_ normal.

Joker—oh gosh— _Joker pouted_. The corners of his mouth turned down, lower lip jutting as he stared at the far wall. “Why'd you hit me?” he wondered piteously.

_Mmmgyangh—!_

Panther gripped the edge of the bench so she wouldn’t completely lose it. How was she supposed to resist this?! “...I’m sorry.”

“Hmph.”

The childish sulk demanded her full and entire honesty or she would _die_. Compelled by forces being her comprehension, she confessed, “I didn’t mean to. I was just mad because you ate the last sweet bun and you didn’t offer me any. I didn’t know that the spell would get you too. I should have been more careful.”

The sulk melted into sheepishness, guileless guilt on his end too. “Oh.”

Her whole and entire _being_ was tied up in that expression, and it was taking her for one _wild_ ride. “What?”

“Sorry.”

Now, the usual Joker would have left it at that, or maybe reassured her that he’d check next time, but this one— _this one_ —went on to _explain._

“I was jus’ mad,” he slurred, looking _adorably_ ashamed. “‘Cuz you were flirting w’ s’meone elsh.” He rolled over and buried his face in her stomach, clumsily wrapping his long, powerful arms around her waist. “Don’ do that. Only me.”

Panther felt like she’d stuck her head in her own Agidyne spell.

Around the room, their teammates were in varying degrees of shock and/or distress—from Oracle’s uncomplicated gape to Skull’s silent _‘holy shiiiit...’_ to Queen’s borderline horror. Noir’s face was buried in her hands, her ears and neck bright red, while Fox seemed somewhere between surprised and fascinated and Mona’s already cartoonish visage had become a caricature of heartbreak.

The shattering of Joker’s eternal deadpan was the shot heard ‘round the world.

“O-okay,” Panther promised faintly. It would be easier to wrack her brain for what he was talking about if only said brain wasn’t completely taken over by that hazy pink of _omigod cuuuuuute!_

(She just wanted to touch his hair. He was being a _horrible tease_ by just leaving it all there with _that face_ in her lap.)

“Good,” Joker mumbled against her abdomen. His arms held her a little tighter. “You’re so pretty, ‘n’ so good, ‘n’ ev’ryone wants you. I don’ wanna share. Jus’... want you.”

“Oh,” said Panther, her voice cracking. Fire resistance or no, she must have just stepped into a _firing kiln_. She was dizzy with the force of her blush. “You’re... pretty amazing yourself.”

He looked up at her, gaze soft and open and awed, and then _he smiled_ , and... was that...

Was that a... _  
_

_A **blush**?_

A bullet to the heart would have been kinder.

Then his eyes fluttered shut, smile and blush fading down to glowing content, and he nuzzled into her stomach and settled into his new ‘pillow’.

He was asleep before she could gather her wits or words.

Absolute silence.

It was a long time they all spent trying to absorb the interaction, and then Skull said, “Uhh... what the hell was he talkin’ about?”

Panther shrugged helplessly. She wasn’t in the habit of flirting with _anyone_ to her knowledge—she’d remember it if she’d done it recently, right?

Another silence stretched out as they all contemplated this, and then Oracle spoke up.

“Was he... was he talking about that _Awakened God_ Shadow back there?”

Now that she mentioned it, Panther _had_ pouted up at the golem-type creature after Joker had accidentally offended it. She’d thought they would turn the tide, but then Joker had pissed it off so bad that no one could save the conversation and hit it with a barrage of nuclear spells before anyone else could get a word in edgewise.

... _Seriously?_

“But he didn’t mind when I helped out with Scathach!” she protested weakly.

Oracle frowned. “I mean, he absorbed her right after that. Maybe he just remembered you flirting with him instead.”

A pressurized whine of _sheer mortification_ escaped Panther’s throat. The thought of intentionally flirting with Joker was already embarrassing enough!

“Yeah,” said Skull, about as obliviously unhelpful as he could get. “Besides, girl-on-girl is—”

“Hey-you-know-what-we-should-let-him-sleep,” Queen blurted out desperately, flushed around the edges of her mask, “so let’s just stop talking here, okay?!”

Noir had dragged her hat over her face, wrecking the brim with her white-knuckled grip and cringing so hard her head almost rested on the table. Mona had been lost to despondency. Fox was poking one of Joker’s shoes with the handle of his brush. Oracle had delicately placed her fingertips over her open mouth, almost tittering.

Panther was getting the profound feeling that she was at the epicenter of a spectacle that she’d only seen the iceberg-tip of.

She decided she didn’t want to know. What she already knew was _humiliating enough_.

However, no conversation meant nothing to distract her from the head of fluffy curls right in front of her.

About a minute and a half of that, and she gave into temptation.

* * *

Joker didn’t remember too much about how he’d ended up unconscious when he woke up—woke up to Panther practically in his arms while she finger combed his hair, no less—but obviously _something_ had happened.

Mona was no longer acknowledging his existence. Oracle was the only one of the girls who would still look him in the eye, and when she did, she did it with a leer that was about as disgusting as Skull’s was. Fox was the only one acting even slightly normal, which wasn’t saying much, seeing as it was Fox.

He didn’t know if he wanted to know.

He probably didn’t.

Curiosity killed the cat and all.

( _Fuck_ was he curious, though. _What the hell had happened?_ )

Apparently he’d been out for about twenty five minutes, which left them with enough time to discover the next safe room and reconvene before they really had to get back to the real world.

It was right before they left Okumura’s Palace that Panther gestured him to fall to the back of the group of the group with her, and swung her arms shyly for a second before asking if he wanted to go see a movie with her next weekend.

She accepted his immediate (if confused) agreement with a blushing smile (he _still_ didn’t know what the hell could have happened in those twenty minutes, but _god_ she was cute), and then stepped up really, _really_ close and pulled him down just enough to steal a kiss.

Hand clamped over his tingling mouth and blood pounding a racket in his ears as he watched her follow the others, he decided that he _really_ needed to ask.

Later.

Maybe on that _oh-shit-it’s-actually-a-date-isn’t-it_ he had next Saturday.

**Author's Note:**

> [taking requests here! (be prepared for a wait tho orz)](https://arcanawildcard.tumblr.com/ask)


End file.
